By Bill Quigley and Rachel
Meeropol.Bill and
Rachel are human rights attorneys at the Center for Constitutional Rights.

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Police reports state that on October 21, 2007 a group of
about twenty people trespassed onto the front lawn of the home of a Berkeley
professor involved in bio-medical research on animals.According to the US government, some of the
protestors had bandanas covering the lower half of their faces and they made "a
lot of noise, chanting animal rights slogans" like "1,2,3,4, open up the cage
door; 5,6,7,8, smash the locks and liberate, 9,10,11,12, vivisectors go to
hell."

A year and a half later, four young activists were indicted in
California
federal court under the little known and rarely used "Animal Enterprise
Terrorism Act" (AETA) for their alleged involvement in this and others
pickets.